The coprolites were first dug in the late 1850s close to the
Hinxworth and Ashwell boundary when draining of the clayey soils revealed a
seam in the greensand between the chalk marl and the gault
clay. They were worked along its junction which ran northwards in a long finger
on either side of the stream. (O’Connor, B. The Coprolite
Industry in Ashwell; O’Connor, B. The Coprolite Industry in Hinxworth ) They were gradually worked northwards towards Dunton Lodge Farm and by 1868 it appeared that the owner
had arranged to have them raised. The farm was tenanted by Simeon Lee and Jonas
Carver, and they would normally have been compensated while the land was out of
cultivation. Whether their farm labourers were involved in the work is
uncertain but it appeared the owner was prepared to sell it with the mining
rights, and receive a considerably better price than just as an agricultural
estate. When they started is again unknown but the Dunton
Estate was put up for sale in July that year and the sale particulars pointed
out that,

“Dunton Lodge Farm contains
VALUABLE BEDS OF COPROLITES, which are being worked by the owner. There are
also large Deposits on the Church Farm and some on Millow
Bury.” (Beds.R.O. WG.2359 )

Subsequent evidence suggests that one of the contractors who was working the pits in the Ashwell area, John Bennet Lawes,
must have won a coprolite lease and continued the operations. A few months
later, Lawes’ Hitchin based surveyor, George Beaver, noted, “On the 5th October
1868 I am coprolite surveying at Dunton Lodge Farm
near Biggleswade for J. B. Lawes.” By November he reported that, “Coprolite
work in full swing,” and by the following year he admitted,“All 1869 J.B. Lawes’ people very busy
in diggings which take up a great deal of my time.” (Hitchin Museum, G.Beaver’s diaries, pp.86a,87a.)
No evidence in the way of maps or correspondence has emerged
that would locate the extent of the diggings but it seemed they must have been
exhausted by August 1874 as the farm was again up for sale. This time the
coprolites were not mentioned.